THREE BOOKS AND A BIBLE--A SECOND LOOK

Friday, January 16, 2009

Yesterday I wrote about Four Books And A Bible, which should have been Three Books And A Bible--not four. I was never good at math.

Today I want to take a closer look at those three books and the Bible.

Your Best Life Begins Each Morning by Joel Osteen is a small book of devotions for every day of the year. They are brief, timely messages of practical value. Today's devotional had the title, Reach Out by Faith. The text was Matthew 9:21-22 and the illustration was about a man who's wrong attitude was destroying his marriage. The message for the day was, "Your life will change when you change your thinking."

A Year With Jesus by Eugene H. Peterson also contains brief devotionals. The text for today is Matthew 2:11. Peterson says, "The first thing wise people do in the presence of Jesus is worship: not congratulate themselves on having found him, not ask him questions, not attempt to get something from him, but offer up themselves to him."

Daily Readings from the Life of CHRIST by John MacArthur also contains brief writings,but his are a little more expository in nature. The text for today is Matthew 4:4 and he also refers to James 4:14,15 and Matthew 6:28-30. His commentary is excellent. A sample sentence is: "We always suffer and miss out to some extent on spiritual blessings when we shortsightedly worry about the temporal instead of focusing on the eternal."

I like to use the NIV/The Message Parallel Bible because it puts a good translation alongside a one person translation, or more precisely--a paraphrase. I want the translation ,but I also benefit from the more contemporary thinking of Peterson. I'm not trying to do in depth study this time of the morning but just getting my day started in the Word.

Tomorrow I'm planning to write about those who cannot move from time with God to living and working sanely with others. They lay their Bible down and move out into the "rat race" but try to pretend they are still alone with Him.